After Being 'Punched in the Mouth,' LSU Defense Wants to Finish Regular Season on the Right Note

About midway through the third quarter in LSU's 58-37 win over Ole Miss, junior safety JaCoby Stevens, senior cornerback Kristian Fulton and a bunch of the veteran leaders on the defense pulled the group together.

The message was passionate yet clear, this isn't the LSU standard of excellence.

"I'm an emotional guy and passionate," Stevens said. "I feel like we were getting dominated in the second half. They basically did whatever they wanted to do and that's not how LSU defenses play."

The Tigers allowed 614 yards of offense to the Rebels, 400 of which came on the ground. The 'LSU standard of excellence' is a phrase uttered by multiple Tiger players and coaches throughout the season. Not only do the players care about getting the win but at the end of the day, how they get the win on Saturday's means a lot to them as well.

On Monday, coach Ed Orgeron was quick to put the blame on the coaching staff for the second half defensive performance.

"I for one called the run stop on that first long run in the second half that didn't work," Orgeron said. "We're trying to be a little too aggressive. There was a new run play, an arc read on the four technique that they showed, creating lot of space, gave us some problems. Had a couple guys out of position."

Stevens and other defensive stars on the team said that in no way, shape or form can Saturday's second half performance be put on anybody but themselves.

"I was embarrassed for the LSU defense," Stevens said. "We didn't put out a great representation of how we practice and how we play. Coach O and coach Aranda are always going to put it on themselves but at the end of the day it's us. At the end of the day the players have to make the plays. Regardless of the call, of the situation, we're the players out on the field and we have to make the plays."

Senior defensive end Rashard Lawrence was more upbeat about the game, saying that in spite of a poor second half showing from the defense, the team has an offense that can carry the load on slow nights, something LSU teams of the past haven't always had the luxury of.

"We didn't do a good job of adjusting," Lawrence said. "To stop the option football you all have to be on the same page. This defense hasn't played up to our standard yet but the good thing is we're undefeated. We've been in some tough games where we've allowed a bunch of points but there's some good offenses in this league.

We got Joe Burrow as our quarterback and we want to take some pressure off of him. If we get a couple of stops here and there, that's the difference in the game. We'll get better though."

The goal in practice this week is to learn from those mistakes in order for the defense to hold up their end of the bargain and take some pressure off of Burrow and the offense.

Lawrence said one of the biggest positives the defense took away from Saturday was nobody turned on each other while the onslaught was going on in the second half. Not even after the heated meeting spurred by Stevens in the third quarter.

"We have a chance to really have a good week of practice and get ready for Arkansas and have a four quarter LSU defensive game," Lawrence said. "I think we have to focus for four quarters, have to focus on our keys. Most of the plays we give up are chunk plays. We've played solid football but it's always five or six plays that go for however many yards. So for us, focusing on every play is a key moving forward."

Stevens said schematically it wasn't anything the Rebels were really doing on offense that surprised the LSU defense. Instead, he agrees with Lawrence, saying it was the five or six explosive plays that ultimately made the difference Saturday.

Rebel quarterback John Rhys Plumlee had touchdown runs of 46, 60 and 35 yards in the second half while wide receiver Elijah Moore also took a six-yard slant route to the house from 55-yards out, blowing past every member of the secondary in the process.

"We won on third down so what I take away from that is, when we made Ole Miss actually have to drive the ball, they couldn't do it," Stevens said. "We were 85% on third down and that's our standard so when you take away those big plays, Ole Miss didn't really have anything. I hate to say that because you have to play defense even on the big plays but we need to take those gimme plays away."

In spite of the recent shortcomings, Stevens knows the talent is there for this defense to make a turnaround, which is why he was so passionate on the sidelines Saturday night.

"If we were a bunch of scrubs and we didn't have the talent that we clearly have, I would just throw my hands in the air and say we probably need to recruit better," Stevens said. "We have guys that are elite talent players, guys that can go first round next year and we just didn't play like that as a defensive unit. For me, I just wanted to let everybody know that's how I felt."